Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis

The article deals with the issues related to the specifics of the incantation as a genre of oral folklore, history of collecting, publishing and the beginning of their studying in Russia. The main emphasis is put on the first monographic work dedicated to conspiracies. Scientific portrait of the author is represented, his work, translations and reprinting are analyzed. Features that have made the book classic are established.

In the article is surveyed the calendar-ritual tradition and its change from the magical beginning to poetic, aesthetic one. It is presented dominant level – suggestive, seen in the formula desirable – real. The focus is on a calendar memory, its main factors by which it is relayed. The emphasis is on repetition, variation of traditional actions and verbal expression.

The current article sketches some peculiarities of the Christian worldview manifested as Roman Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox traditions shaped by unique social activities of nations and their luminous representatives. These three traditions are described as Roman Catholic (society which pleases God), Protestant (Professional calling from God) and Russian Orthodox (merge of religious and national identity). Traditions are characterized by illustrations from the key documents representing local peculiarities of the Christian mindset. Being mutually interactive, these vectors open up unlimited ways to carry out practical Christian ministry both within the Church and outside its walls at the same time acting as preconditions for Christian social teaching and development of caritative social work.

The article focuses on the state of the old cemeteries in Klaipėda Region and their place in the system of the local culture heritage. All that shall be revealed by actualizing the issue as an outcome of World War 2, when the Region lost almost all local population who were substituted for by settlers with the culture and religion alien to the land. The historical-confessional characteristics of legal evolution of the old cemeteries of the region are discussed by disclosing the transfer of their legal-administrative subordination from church to municipal jurisdiction. General characteristics and problems of the relationship of the new settlers with the old heritage are discussed. The value of the cemeteries in terms of heritage protection is emphasized.

Anthropology as a discipline is largely concerned with understanding human beings on a local and inter-national scale. As the subject has evolved, a number of sub-disciplines have come to the fore, the most prominent being biological, archaeological, linguistic, social and cultural. Political anthropology is generally placed as a sub-specialism within the context of social and cultural anthropology. This essay argues for greater significance for political anthropology as a sub-discipline of anthropology generally and especially within the Baltic States. Following an initial review of political anthropology in and of Europe, the essay outlines some of the key issues to which the Baltic States can make particularly unique contributions. The Baltic States already have a well-developed tradition of European Ethnology. This essay emphasises that they are also in a unique position to contribute to the development of political anthropology as an important sub-discipline which has acquired a new relevance in the context of an ever-changing EU. In a Europe that has witnessed many political changes over the past half-century and the emergence of new borders is going, insights into the political process can hardly be acquired through the disciplines of politics or sociology alone. The Eastern enlargement of the EU gives an urgency to our thinking about Europe.